Chapter 76 76 : No One Understands Thia Better Than Me (Part 3)
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Renji\'s command was quite simple.
Tamic didn\'t even need to execute it himself.
"I apologize for the slight offense."
Before the young knight could understand what Renji meant, he found himself being lifted up like a small chicken by the young man.
Eileen\'s slaughter of the tainted corpses was not just for charging the [Brand].
Don\'t forget.
As the contracted girl, every bit of pollution generated in battle through slaughter and the use of Tainted Miasma energy was transferred to Renji through the contract, enhancing his power.
Eileen, having slain at least a hundred tainted corpses, had already provided Renji in the rear with a substantial amount of experience, skyrocketing his level.
Even if the attribute points per level for the protagonist were minimal, Renji, who had been rapidly leveling up, had long surpassed the bounds of ordinary human strength. Holding a full-grown person in one hand was as easy as playing with a ball.
As for what to do with a ball once it\'s picked up...Naturally, it\'s to be thrown!
"My personal advice is that it\'s better for you to close your eyes for what comes next."
Having said this, Renji, aiming at the pitch-black arrow of [Dark Spirit Art: Annihilation], which Suthia had finished chanting and was shooting towards Eileen, threw Tamic with all his might!
Swoosh!*
Though Tamic was prepared for death, when he was flung through the air like a discus by Renji, the intense sensation of weightlessness and the roaring wind in his ears were undeniably terrifying.
Moreover,
Tamic didn\'t heed Renji\'s advice. He saw his target, where Renji had thrown him as a "human shield," the pitch-black arrow growing larger in his vision, radiating an aura of destruction.
\'Will I die after being hit by this?\'
\'Heh…\'
\'Isn\'t that obvious?\'
It\'s said that in the moment of being hit by a truck, a multitude of thoughts bursts into one\'s mind. In that instant, you think of many, many things.
Tamic also had such a moment, recalling his life. Born an orphan, he never saw his parents. A kind-hearted nun found his mother in labor on the roadside and took her to the church hospital, paying for the surgery. Sadly, his mother didn\'t survive, but at least she gave birth to him.
As an orphan from birth, fortunately, with the help of the church\'s nuns, he found new parents willing to adopt him, a couple who had lost the ability to have children.
They were regular churchgoers, always adhering to the Goddess ideals. They had prayed to the Goddess for a child, and when they heard of an orphan needing a home, they immediately took him in.
They saw him as a gift from The Goddess Suthia, a blessing of their devout prayers. They treated him as their own son, giving him the best of everything.
Until
One day, when violent traffickers broke into their home. His parents fought desperately to protect him but were ultimately killed, leaving blood everywhere. Tamic, still young, was terrified. He could only curl up in a corner, clutching a cross, pleading the Goddess for help, to save his parents, to save their home.
Sadly, Suthia did not respond. After killing his parents, the traffickers threw him into a car, where Tamic saw many other children like him, kidnapped, with ashen faces and dull eyes.
That moment might have been the closest Tamic\'s faith ever came to collapsing. The young boy couldn\'t help but doubt: Does the Goddess really exist? Is Lady Suthia really watching over us? Then why... why did this happen?
Tamic clearly remembers, just as his eyes were about to completely dull like the other children\'s...
Suddenly, the trafficker\'s vehicle was brought to a jarring halt, followed by the sound of chaos and gunfire outside, then screams - the traffickers\' screams.
Bang!*
The door of the van was kicked open. Sunlight poured back into the dark van, and at the doorway stood a knight in a handsome silver-gray uniform. Despite being stained with blood and the dust of gunfight, it didn\'t diminish his charm or his handsomeness.
"The rest is up to you guys. Take good care of these children."
"What about you, Durin?"
"I just f*ucking remembered, there\'s a chick waiting for me to f**ing—date!"
The flashback of his life ended.
Tamic closed his eyes.
All his life, he had been redeemed by the Goddess and those who believed in her.
This time, finally, it was his turn.
To sacrifice himself for Suthia. To the goddess he owned his life to
…
The pitch-black arrow of [Dark Spirit Art: Annihilation] and Tamic\'s body, thrown into the air, finally overlapped. Even Eileen below couldn\'t help but close her eyes.
Could she call Renji cruel?
She had no right.
Moreover, that arrow was meant for her. It was Tamic who bore it for her, who... died for her.
All she could do now was transform her grief into anger, slaughter! Slaughter more! She must become stronger, she must continue to accumulate this already terrifying but still insufficient power!
She...
"Eh!?"
Tamic, who should have been torn apart by the black arrow in the girl\'s imagination, preserving a whole body was a luxury. The young knight himself thought the same.
But at the moment, as the scene shifted, and the girl opened her eyes, the next scene was...
"Ahhh!"
Tamic, screaming as he continued to fall in a parabola, was completely unharmed, not even a scratch visible. Did the nun finally have a change of heart and retract her skill at the last moment?
\'No, that was impossible; that arrow could not be retracted\'
Then what was it?
"Zero, go catch him. It would really ruin the mood if he died from the fall."
Following the command, the mechanical maid immediately rushed to Tamic, who was about to crash down from mid-air. In a few breaths, she brought the still petrified and deeply perplexed Tamic back to Renji.
"How do you feel?" Renji patted the young knight\'s shoulder.
"Fe-feel."
"I understand, you\'ve worked hard. I\'m glad that Suthia has such a loyal beliver like you."
This was Renji\'s heartfelt praise.
After speaking, Renji no longer stayed in the rear but walked straight towards Suthia, leaving only his receding figure to Tamic.
Because Renji was familiar with Suthia, familiar with each of her skills, he knew the biggest flaw of [Dark Spirit Art: Annihilation]: the stronger the opponent, the stronger it is; the weaker the opponent, the weaker it is.
Against units with an attack rating below C, [weaklings] it\'s virtually ineffective, or in other words, no different than a tickle.
As for why Renji suddenly stepped forward.
It was simple.
Because he knew that Suthia had no other attack skills left. Yes, as a healer, the recent [Dark Spirit Art: Annihilation] was the nun\'s only offensive ability.
All of Suthia\'s remaining abilities could only save people, not kill them.
So, the nun was left with only one option.
Scythe and hook reappeared in Suthia\'s hands, time and again, easily neutralized by him using her familiar weaknesses.
A familiar sense of powerlessness surged in Suthia\'s heart, a memory from five hundred years ago.
Back then, she was eliminated and replaced by the newcomers because she had too few means of attack. She didn\'t kill or hurt others, and it was for these reasons that her lord grew increasingly distant from her.
Suthia refused to repeat the same mistake!
Therefore, at this moment, the nun chose to give herself completely to the Miasma force, letting her spirit be controlled by it, because only in this state, she was unfamiliar her lord… she was... capable of killing!
The crazy nun who once effortlessly crushed Zero and an entire \'Emergency Squad\' reemerged.
This time, facing the unfamiliar her.
Facing the new her.
Facing her transformed into the ultimate attacker, she wanted to see what her lord could use to stop her!
Indeed.
Faced with the mutated and fallen Suthia, Renji had no knowledge of this form of the nun\'s skill set and could no longer counter her as before.
Moreover, Suthia had abandoned her dignity and personally entered the fray. All the fancy tricks were useless in the face of absolute power.
At first glance, it seemed like a desperate situation.
And Eileen was just a bit short, not just in accumulated attack power. Eileen lacked an environment that would ensure she could strike without restraint, hit with 100% accuracy, even land critical hits.
And this was also why Renji stepped out from the back.
Even with an unfamiliar Suthia, Renji always believed that there was one thing about the nun that would never change.
\'Ah, Nova, I hope you can make things easier for me\'
Renji muttered to himself.
Then, among the five skills he had acquired from his wives a new skill was illuminated and utilized by Renji.
At that moment, his blood boiled throughout his body, every cell breathing at its maximum capacity, and his heart thundered like a mad beast.
Crimson scales rapidly covered Renji\'s arms and body like tattoos. When he stepped forward, to everyone watching, he was no longer human.
He resembled more of a...
Dragon.
A red dragon.
Renji, like a cannonball, charged forward. With the [Dragonblood Ignition] activated, his physical prowess was enhanced several times. With a mere push from his feet, he could soar into the air, stand in front of the Tainted Miasma-controlled Suthia, and…
Take a hit from the nun.
Squelch!*
The scythe pierced through the young man\'s body, the hook claw tore open Renji\'s chest. Indeed, that was Suthia, and with his current strength, even with buffs, it was impossible to win against her.
So...
Renji chose to cheat.
When Suthia realized what she had done, when she saw that she had attacked her Lord, when she found her Tainted Miasma-controlled self had thrust the scythe and hook claw into Her Lord\'s body...
Her bloody red eyes cleared in an instant.
The Tainted Miasma, still trying to wrest control of her body, tempting Suthia, trying to bring out the darkness within her, could no longer shake the nun\'s resolve.
Seeing Suthia, who had left her battle form, her face filled with tears and panic, and those eyes, though unfamiliar, had a hint of the clarity he knew so well.
Held in the nun\'s arms, with a gaping hole in his chest, Renji used his last strength to touch her face.
"I told you... in this world....no one understands Thia better.... than me."